“I can’t do it anymore. Kill me.”
“Lu Li… hold on a bit longer.”
“Yeah, just a little while.”
“Such a short time doesn’t suit the original you.”
“That may be so…”
Lu Li looked at himself in the mirror, his face painted with rosy makeup and a lotus-shaped forehead ornament.
“This will go on for a month?!”
“According to Yin Yang Sect’s rules, the attire is also specialized.”
Shen Zhaoxue, as a disciple from a great family, carefully examined the books on the table.
“It’s somewhat similar to the clothes mortal women wear for marriage.”
“Give me a break… Can’t I just cultivate properly?”
Upon hearing that, Lu Li’s head spun.
If it were usual times, wearing women’s clothes for daily life would be tolerable.
There were quite a few such disciples in the sect.
But for the enthronement ceremony at the end of the month, he had to learn how to walk, how to bow, and how to speak to the guests and the masters within the sect.
Although he understood these things were necessary, having Lu Li do them was pure torture.
“Jiang Yuebai, can you do this kind of thing for me?”
Lu Li looked at Jiang Yuebai, who was arranging the Saintess Crown.
“You were born into a big family, so you should be used to this.”
“For routine matters, I can still share the burden for Brother… Lu.”
Jiang Yuebai gave a wry smile.
“It’s better not to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the Seven Major Sects.”
“Moreover, the bigger the family and sect, the more complicated these things become.”
Shen Zhaoxue spoke, cutting off Lu Li’s next words.
“It can’t be simple.”
“Ah, the old days were much more enjoyable.”
Lu Li now missed his time at the escort agency. Although it was poor and tiring, at least when an escort mission ended, he could enjoy incredibly free days.
He would lean back in the courtyard, read immortal storybooks, spar with other escort guards, and fantasize about a wonderful future.
Back then, the dream he had most often was facing a tide of enemies amidst thousands of troops, offering up his long sword, opening mountains and seas with one strike, and opening the Heavenly Gate with another.
But now… Lu Li looked again at Qing Luo, who was adjusting his long dress, at Shen Zhaoxue, who was meticulously instructing him on the enthronement ceremony etiquette, and at Jiang Yuebai, who was checking his headdress.
This scene was indeed quite warm, but it was completely different from what he had imagined.
Not to mention the reflection of himself in the mirror.
“Forget it, forget it… After getting through this month, I’ll be free.”
Nowadays, Lu Li’s time was divided into two parts each day.
In the morning, he followed everyone to review the ceremony etiquette.
In the evening, it was truly his own time, able to focus on studying magic techniques while solidifying his foundation.
“Ha, the Ten Thousand Swords Technique.”
In the evening, while everyone else was busy with their own cultivation, Lu Li held a book on the technique he most desired, a full smile on his face.
As for the other book, the Yin Yang Sect’s Charm Technique, he set it aside.
“Thanks to the exchange between the three sects.”
Lu Li opened the book, carefully read the description of this technique, memorized all the content, then closed his eyes and began to trace.
Magic techniques were offensive methods used during the high stage of Qi Refining and the initial stage of Foundation Establishment.
One needed to trace the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within the body along a unique path to form a fixed “Spirit Pattern.”
Once the spirit pattern stabilized, during the next attack, one would circulate along the spirit pattern’s path and launch the attack.
For instance, Shen Zhaoxue’s Ice Moonlight could condense crescent moon blossoms to attack opponents.
Jiang Yuebai’s Starlight Dance was similar, using True Yuan as stars that scattered outward.
“But their techniques don’t have complicated spirit patterns to trace.”
Lu Li had previously borrowed both of their technique books; he just needed to trace a unique shape and then use True Yuan to activate it.
“Ten Thousand Swords is much more troublesome… I have to trace ninety-nine Sword Gates along the path, then complete it in one go to form a sword shape.”
Lu Li carefully controlled his True Yuan to move within his dantian.
But in one breath, his Divine Sense would twitch slightly, causing the hard-won first few Sword Gates to collapse, followed by some soreness in his meridians.
“Hmm… same as before.”
Lu Li wasn’t surprised; his tracings this past month had been like this.
“But then… I’ve been tracing according to the Sword Spiritual Root, so it might indeed not go smoothly.”
After more than a dozen tracings, the Sword Gates still collapsed in his dantian.
The soreness all over his body forced Lu Li to stand up and go to the courtyard to breathe the cold air, in order to release the excess Primordial Yang Qi in his body.
“Now that I’m in a female body, from an efficiency standpoint, tracing the Yin Yang Sect’s cultivation techniques is most suitable.”
Lu Li paced in the courtyard.
“But ordinary techniques are not as good as this Ten Thousand Swords. The good techniques are all based on Charm and Spirit… headache.”
This was also related to the sect’s style.
The Yin Yang Sect’s techniques were basically about subduing the enemy without fighting.
Compared to direct combat, they won battles from a distance.
“However, as times change, there are some offensive techniques, but those… ah.”
With a sigh, Lu Li returned to the room and picked up the Charm Technique.
The Charm Technique was created by the Ancestor of Yin Yang Sect.
With just a frown or a smile, one could carve a path of Immortal Cultivation without bloodshed.
Later it was improved so that ordinary Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples could cultivate it, and it could be cultivated all the way to Ascension.
For Yin Yang Sect disciples, this was a cultivation technique that had to be practiced.
“Initially, you only need to trace nine Spirit Points to combine into a single-tail Spirit Pattern.”
Lu Li read the description in the book.
“It’s taken from the Nine-Tailed imagery of the Yao Race.”
“If at the Qi Refining stage you can condense ninety-nine Spirit Points, you can form the Nine-Tailed Spirit Pattern. Then at Foundation Establishment, it’s nine hundred and ninety-nine; at Golden Core, nine thousand nine hundred… until Ascension, endless.”
“Forget it, it’s still an excellent technique regardless.”
Lu Li closed his eyes and sighed, then calmed his mind to control the condensation of True Yuan and began to connect.
But this time, the connection went extremely smoothly. Sometimes even when his mind twitched slightly, the Spirit Points would automatically return to where they belonged.
As for the links between points, it was effortless, as if they had lives of their own and clung together automatically.
In one breath, the first nine Spirit Points were condensed, and a lifelike pink fox tail gently swayed in his dantian.
“…As expected, different forms stimulate different Spiritual Roots.”
After realizing this again, Lu Li did not resist and continued to guide his True Yuan to trace the following fox tails.
Strangely, the situation described in the book—that it becomes harder towards the end—never occurred.
On the contrary, as he traced to the end, it seemed that the True Yuan automatically formed the shape of a Nine-Tailed Fox.
When the last Spirit Point was drawn, Lu Li suddenly felt a cool surge in his dantian rushing straight to his eyes.
“Huh?”
Alarmed by this change, Lu Li immediately opened his eyes and rushed to the mirror in his room.
By the faint candlelight, he caught sight of the change in his eyes.
In his originally dark brown pupils, there were now hints of peach-pink.
What left Lu Li speechless was that this color had condensed into the shape of a heart.
“My Charm Technique… has actually reached such a high level of mastery just like that?”